"There was one woman who followed her husband into the wilderness where he had taken a position in charge of a sheep station owned by Major Newcombe. It was above the Grey River, near Ahaura.

Mrs Jacobsen reached the mouth of the Grey in January 1865 to find that the only means of reaching her husband was by canoe. She engaged a crew to paddle the craft up the river.

Seldom has it been the lot of a woman to face a journey under such conditions. It rained almost incessantly; the river was in flood; tributaries, emptying great volumes of water into the already swollen main stream, caused so much confusion of waters that the canoe was all but capsized on numerous occasions. Mrs Jacobsen was determined to reach her husband, and would not permit the crew to turn back as they so often pleaded they should do.

It was 25 miles between the mouth of the river and the point she was to leave it for the short overland trek to the sheep station. She was eight days on her journey.